Four Afghan civilians killed in suicide attack

KABUL - A suicide bomber attacked a convoy of NATO forces in southern province of Kandahar Monday, killing four civilians, officials said.

The bomber rammed his explosive-laden vehicle into one of the vehicles of a NATO convoy in Daman district Monday morning, said Fazel Ahmad Sherzad, the deputy provincial police chief.

The attack resulted in death of “four of our innocent civilians”, the interior ministry said in a statement. One civilian was wounded.

The attack happened in Tarang area of the district near Kandahar airfield, the second biggest military base for US and other NATO troops in the country after Bagram near Kabul, Sherzad said.

A NATO spokesman in Kabul confirmed the attack but could not say if there were any casualties among the alliance’s soldiers.

No group immediately took responsibility for the attack.

A total of 15,000 NATO and Afghan troops are taking part in a major offensive in neighbouring Helmand province. That operation has made slow progress into its third week against continued resistance by Taliban.

US and NATO officials said the Helmand offensive was a prelude for a larger operation in Kandahar. Around half of the additional 30,000 US troops expected by summer are to be deployed in and around Kandahar province.

Kandahar and Helmand have been strongholds of the insurgency in the past eight years. Kandahar is the birthplace of the Taliban movement and was the headquarters of its leader, Mullah Omar, from 1996 to late 2001.